The Portuguese Government approved the creation of the Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migration and Asylum, which will replace the Aliens and Borders Service and the High Commission for Migrations
The Portuguese Government approved, in the Council of Ministers, the creation of the Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migration and Asylum (APMMA) within the scope of reception and integration policies. The APMMA, announced several times, will replace the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the High Commission for Migration (ACM), which are now extinct. The restructuring of the SEF was scheduled twice, and it was expected that this body would be definitively extinguished on March 31st. However, it was only during this month that the creation of the APMMA was approved, and the transition process has no defined deadline.
In a statement, the Government stresses that “by integrating competences that carry over from the ACM, APMMA initiates a paradigm shift in the management of migration and asylum in Portugal. As a host country, APMMA starts to guarantee that international protection – asylum and protection subsidiary –, temporary protection, integration and reception are managed by only one entity”.
With the extinction of the Foreigners and Borders Service, the Government believes that in this way it contributes to “the space of freedom, security and justice of the Schengen area”, while it separates “the police functions from those of integration and reception”.
What changes with the extinction of the SEF?
- SEF inspectors are assigned to the Judiciary Police (PJ)
- Border control – land and sea – becomes the responsibility of the National Republican Guard (GNR)
- Border control – air and national – is transferred to the competence of the Public Security Police (PSP)
- Combating crime associated with illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings – responsibility of the Judiciary Police.
The extinction of the High Commission for Migration transposes almost all valences to the Portuguese Agency for Minorities, Migration and Asylum.
The Government also approved a draft law (which must be submitted and voted on in parliament), which transposes Directive (EU) 2021/1883, i.e. a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2021 on to the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly qualified employment, thus defining the requirements for obtaining and maintaining the “EU Blue Card” (residence permit that enables its holder to reside and exercise, in national territory, a highly qualified subordinate activity).
Among the measures approved, and within the scope of Internal Security, the creation of a border and foreign coordination unit is planned, which aims at “greater coordination of efforts by security forces and services to guarantee regulated and safe borders”.
